Harvard Business School Alumni

Harvard’s Future in Allston

Courtesy Boston Redevelopment Authority

Harvard University’s proposed expansion across the Charles River onto land flanking HBS has entered a new phase, with four task forces hard at work on refining planning assumptions outlined by President Lawrence H. Summers last fall. The plan envisions a new Allston campus with cutting-edge science and technology facilities, campuses for the graduate schools of public health and education, and student housing. Ways the new campus can contribute to a vibrant community, with cultural attractions, restaurants, and shops, will also be explored.

Dean Kim B. Clark chairs the task force on professional schools. The group has three key responsibilities: to explore the potential of collaboration on educational programs among the University’s professional schools; to develop a concept for a University-wide complex of facilities to support major educational collaborative themes; and to provide guidance to the planning of prospective new Allston-based campuses for the graduate schools of public health and education.

The other task forces will focus on science and technology; culture, housing, and urban life; and undergraduate life. The groups are expected to take a year to advance the Allston planning process. Meanwhile, the search is on for a planning and design firm to pull all the recommendations together into a coherent vision for this first phase of expansion.

The University has acquired more than two hundred acres in Allston over the past twenty years, more land than the original Cambridge campus. Officials hope to begin limited development in Allston within the next several years.

“We have, in our Allston properties, a historic opportunity to build our long-term academic strength, while contributing to the vitality of one of our important home communities,” said Summers in a ten-page letter to faculty, students, and staff. Read the entire letter at www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2003/
lhs_allston.html.